Through the Looking Glass

A chronicle of the absurd, in politics and life

Friday, February 03, 2006

The Enron trial is on now. The New York Times is giving it proper
coverage. Daily articles, so far. In the business section.

Thinking back to the screaming front-page headlines about the
Clintons' Whitewater affair, one might expect more. In both cases, a
sitting President was tied to the affairs of seedy hometown
businessmen. Both had been in a position to benefit, in at least a
small way, from the connection --- though in the Clintons' case, as
was uncontested from the start, they actually lost money. (Enron graciously
allowed Dubya to travel to campaign appearances on the company
jet, charging only first-class airfare, a comparative pittance).

And the Enron affair did reach into national governance --- Ken Lay
was very influential in keeping Dubya's energy regulators away from
the guys at his company's trading desk who were cracking jokes about
stealing from grandmothers in California.

Ah, but there's the difference. There is a politician who was in
fact held accountable for the California energy mess. I refer of
course to the erstwhile governor of California, a Democrat, who not
only saw his budget surplus plundered by Lay's proud bandits, but
got blamed by the voters for getting robbed.

So, a politician was brought down, and the commentariat
can claim a scalp. Another, mayhap, would be too much to
ask. And who really cares if it's the right one?

Update: You know, whenever I wonder if anyone's reading
this thing, all I need to do is publish something blatantly, embarassingly
wrong and I have my answer. In this case, the first version of this post
tagged Enron for endorsing the stadium of Dubya's baseball team (his one
semi-successful business venture), somewhat heedless of the fact that
Enron actually bought the naming rights to a different stadium,
in a different city. A commenter pointed out the screwup. As Instapundit
might say, advantage: blogosphere! Though he'll be less likely to say it
until he starts taking comments...